A new fragment of Gower's 'Confessio Amantis'.(poet John Gower)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-OCT-01

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Modern Humanities Research Association

There have been few recent additions to the materials for the study of the text of Gower's Confessio Amantis. (1) Discoveries have been largely confined to the identification of various extracts from this work. (2) Recently, however, a new fragment has come to light, one that is part of one of the most significant early authorities for the text of Gower's poem.

Huntington Library MS EL 26.A.17, fols 1-169v is the so-called 'Stafford Gower'. It was copied before the close of the fourteenth century, very probably for the future Henry IV before he became king. (3) It is the earliest witness for the second recension of Gower's poem. Gower's editor describes it thus: 'In correctness it is inferior to F[airfax 3] and these two stand far above all others as primary authorities'. (4) This manuscript, however, lacks seventeen leaves. They comprise: (i) Prologue, ll. 147-320; (ii) Prologue, l. 1055-i. 106; (iii)-(v) iii. 573-1112; (vi) iv. 2351-2530; (vii)-(viii) iv. 2711-3078; (ix) iv. 3263-3442; (x)-(xi) iv. 3626-v. 274; (xii) v. 6821-7000; (xiii) vi. 2357-vii. 88; (xiv)-(xv) vii. 2641-3004; (xvi)-(xvii) vii. 5417-viii. 336.5 Given its textual importance, the recent re-emergence of part of one these leaves is an occasion of some importance in Gower textual studies.

The new fragment is from the sixth of these missing leaves and originally came between the present folios 68 and 69. The text, which is in double columns, comprises parts of Book iv, as follows: recto, column a: ll. 2351-2382; recto, column b: ll. 2393-2428; verso, column a: ll. 2439-2474; verso, column b: ll. 2485-2520.6 Each column now contains only thirty-six lines of text rather than the forty-six of a full leaf, ten lines having been lost from the bottom part of each column, as follows: recto, column a: ll. 2383-92; recto, column b: ll. 2429-38; verso, column a: ll. 2475-84, verso, column b: ll. 2521-30. The lacunae in the text can be explained by the cropping of the leaf for use as a binding support for the spine of...

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